CTSA PROGRAM UPDATE

November 10, 2017

CTSA PROGRAM

NEWSLETTER CHANGES

1. The NCATS Center for Leading Collaboration, Innovation and Communication (CLIC) will now assemble the monthly CTSA Program Update and send it to the community. Please send any content you would like considered for future newsletters to content@clic-ctsa.org.
2. The frequency of the update will shift from twice a month to one time per month.  The update will condense all the topics from two separate issues into one and be sent out the second Friday of each month.

CTSA PROGRAM FUNDED ACTIVITIES TABLE “HOW TO”

NCATS posts all CTSA Program awards by fiscal year.

1. To see a table of CTSA Program Funding Information: On the NCATS Homepage, www.ncats.nih.gov, please open the “Funded activities under the NCATS Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) Program” hyperlink or open the table directly via https://ncats.nih.gov/files/ctsa-funding-information.pdf
2. To view a list of CTSA Program awards, select an underlined dollar amount: As an example, to view a list of CTSA Program Hub awards funded with FY2017 appropriated dollars, select the underlined dollar amount on the Hub Awards line in the table. Please note that each Hub Award is an aggregate of two or three linked grants because a Hub is defined as a UL1 award (Center award) with a linked KL2 award (Career Development), and an optional TL1 award (Training Grant). This selection will take you to search results in NIH RePORT.
3. Please also read the notes on the table, which provide additional important details.
4. NIH RePORT search results: Data columns are sortable by hovering over column headers. All data are also exportable to a spreadsheet.

Questions?  Contact Penny Burgoon.

COMMON METRICS

ACCRUAL METRIC PILOT TEST CONCLUDES THIS MONTH

Eight hubs have been pilot testing the draft Accrual Metric to understand the feasibility and usefulness of the metric for strategic management. Hubs with Clinical Trial Management Systems, and those with other electronic data systems, have addressed gaps in the data needed to calculate the metric. Pilot hubs have also convened partners and identified core challenges around clinical trial accrual. The results of the pilot will inform possible revisions to the metric operational guideline and the eventual implementation.

DECEMBER 1^st: COMMON METRICS INITIATIVE TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE TRANSITION TO CLIC

The Tufts CTSI Common Metrics Implementation team will continue providing technical assistance for the IRB Duration, Pilot Funding, and Careers in CTR metrics and Scorecard system until November 30^th. The Tufts Helpdesk can be contacted at TuftsMCCMIHelpdesk@tuftsmedicalcenter.org.  Beginning December 1^st, CTSA Program hubs can contact CLIC for technical assistance on these metrics at common_metrics@clic-ctsa.org or phone 585-276-6243.

INFORMATICS COMMON METRICS UPDATE

Thank you to every hub that participated in the call for pilot sites for the Informatics Common Metric. We received a 90% response rate! The selection of pilot sites continues with CLIC conducting calls with 21 hubs interested in participation.  The list of selected sites will be finalized soon, and we expect that approximately 10-15 sites will participate in the pilot. The pilot selection process included identifying 2-3 sites for each data model and a mix of small/medium/large hub sites. Next steps include coordinating the first call with the selected pilot sites. The overall results of the survey are being analyzed and will be shared very soon. Although the call for pilot sites is now closed, the survey link is still active for those hubs that did not get a chance to contribute information on their clinical research data models. We encourage you to contribute information here: click here for survey.

Reminder: 2016 Data Reporting

The 2016 Common Metrics data and strategic management plans were due on August 30, 2017. If your institution has not yet completed this process, please do by November 30.

Questions? CLIC Contact common_metrics@clic-ctsa.org

DOMAIN TASKFORCE (DTF) UPDATE

The next DTF updates will be in the December newsletter and contain information related to activities taking place during the previous months.

NOVEMBER – DECEMBER SCHEDULED FULL DTF MEETINGS

OPPORTUNITIES

NIH CLINICAL CENTER RFI
As a part of on-going efforts to enhance utilization of the Clinical Center, NIH has published a Request-For-Information (RFI) in the NIH Guide to seek input about areas of scientific opportunity that would benefit from the unique research resources of the Clinical Center.  In particular, input is being sought to identify areas where the need for in-patient research beds exceeds availability.  The RFI, NOT-OD-18-007, will be open for 30 days closing on November 24, 2017.

Questions?  Contact the Clinical Center POC.

NIH/NCI IMPLEMENTATION SCIENCE FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES

NCI has released two companion funding opportunity announcements (FOAs) associated with the Beau Biden Cancer Moonshot^SM Initiative intended to accelerate cancer research:

• Accelerating Colorectal Cancer Screening and follow-up through Implementation Science (ACCSIS) (UG3/UH3) [RFA-CA-17-038]

• Accelerating Colorectal Cancer Screening and follow-up through Implementation Science (ACCSIS) Coordinating Center (U24) [RFA-CA-17-039]

The purpose of this FOA is to promote research in colorectal cancer (CRC) screening, follow-up, and referral-to-care among target populations for whom screening rates are below national standards. This research will provide an evidence base for multilevel interventions that increase rates of CRC screening, follow-up and referral-to-care, and best practices for how multilevel interventions can be scaled-up to reduce the burden of colorectal cancer on the United States (U.S.) population.

The ACCSIS Program will support UG3/UH3 phased award research projects and a U24 Coordinating Center. The UG3/UH3 projects must apply for both the UG3 and UH3 phases together in the single application. The UG3 effort is to be used for the development of one-year, milestone-driven planning phase (UG3), with possible rapid transition to the second phase (UH3) for clinical trials. The ACCSIS Coordinating Center will facilitate coordination across the ACCSIS Research Projects (UG3/UH3); provide administrative support to the ACCSIS Program; assist with identification and collection of common data elements; support the evaluation of locally-developed innovative approaches to increase CRC screening, follow-up, and referral-to-care rates; and develop and coordinate data sharing plans.

A pre-application webinar will be held on November 17th at 11:00am ET.  Registration is required.
Application Due Date: January 18, 2018 by 5:00pm local time of applicant organization

SYNERGY PAPERS

A new initiative underway is designed to support collaborative teams to develop “synergy” papers of high relevance and impact to the field of translational science.  These cross-network synergy papers will address significant challenges in clinical and translational research, while building collaborations within and external to the CTSA Program Consortium.  Synergy paper topics will focus on a major process or methodological roadblock and/or significant content areas that span the translational science continuum.  The CTSA Program Steering Committee, CLIC, and NCATS will be working together to launch the first “rapid response” synergy paper addressing the opioid epidemic.  This will serve as a pilot for the synergy paper initiative, with a subsequent call for other topics planned for some time next year.

Questions? CLIC Contact help@clic-ctsa.org

ANNOUNCEMENTS

CLIC-CTSA WEBSITE REGISTRATION

If you have not done so already, please register/login to the CLIC Website. You will also have to sign up for communications for each DTF and/or WG to which you belong. This is the only way to access your DTF/WG meeting notes and associated documentation. To complete this process, please follow the brief instructions found at CLIC Registration / Login Instructions

Completion of this process will allow CLIC to properly assign NCATS Program Members to DTF/WG lists, and enable access to your DTF and/or WG pages, to view past agendas, summaries and audio recordings of meetings from your Account Page. Additionally, you will see the roster of DTF members and other hub participants. Future functionality will include a cross DTF/WG webpage where all subscribers can see a summary of activities for each group, as well as additional exciting content!

NOTE: We have worked with and validated successful federated registration with these 47 Institutions to date.

ALSO: If your institution is not on the list above at this time, it has not implemented the federated login; therefore you must use an alternative login method through LinkedIn or the newly added Google, as registration alternatives.

We look forward to working with you, and as always, if you have any questions, please contact your CLIC DTF Coordinator.

POST YOUR EVENTS ON CLIC-CTSA WEBSITE

CTSA Program hubs can post information about important meetings they host on the CLIC website to increase communication about sponsored conferences, activities, and/or items relevant to the CTSA Program and the advancement of translational science. Hubs can request conference or meeting posting information here.  Your event will not only post on the events page listing, if there are available images it will appear in the scroll on the homepage!

Questions? Fill out the contact form on the CLIC website at clic-ctsa.org/contact or email CLIC at help@clic-ctsa.org.

MEETINGS/CONFERENCES ON CLIC-CTSA WEBSITE

Recent additions are listed below. Please click the event name for more information!

FALL PROGRAM MEETING WRAP-UP

Slides and handouts from the NCATS Fall Program Meeting held on October 26, 2017 can be viewed or downloaded on the CLIC events webpage.

NCATS would like to thank the CTSA Program community for all their support in developing and standing up the CTSA Program Update.

Going forward we look forward to enhancing this communication platform with the support of CLIC.

NIH NCATS: Improving Health Through Smarter Science
Connect with us: https://ncats.nih.gov/connect